From: !jamesvny002 (Lois Kaczor)
Date: Tues Feb 24 13:45 EST 1990
Subject: Classroom update
...Picture, please, a group of ten fourth graders spread
about the Library floor with bits and pieces of the Welcome Pack from
British Columbia. Each is deeply engrossed in reading the brochures,
maps, clippings, etc. There is considerable verbal exchange as they
call out pieces of information they find interesting. There is some
arguing over who gets what next. There are two boys now pulling out
the globe to do a comparison of the location of British Columbia and
Syracuse and there is considerable discussion about the weather differences.
Two other youngsters get out an atlas, check a map, put
the atlas away and get a "better" one. They have no trouble finding
the map they want and the city they are looking for.
A girl carries a clipboard and is writing down questions
the boys are calling out to her. These are to be used in the next Learning
Network message. Two teachers move in and about this scene answering
a question here and there, but more often, asking a probing question
or making a suggestion for further analysis.
This goes on for thirty minutes and must end only because
another group wishes to use the floor space. Grudgingly, things are
put away, but the conversation continues.
"What about ..."
"Did you see..."
"Well, I think ..."
The Welcome Pack is clutched securely in the hands of
one student and the slightly noisy group exits the library on its way
to the reading room. These deeply involved, actively engaged, turned
on, task oriented learners are a group of "reluctant readers" who normally
have far more interesting things to do with their time than to attend
to their studies. But when they are with their reading teacher, who
volunteered them to work with the Learning Network, they are the best
workers and thinkers I've seen in a long time. They are writing, they
are reading, they are asking questions, they are learning and they are
That's it for today ...
Lois in overcast Syracuse.